The present invention relates to an installation element of an installed packing for the exchange of material and/or heat between gases and liquids, having pegs and recesses for locking with at least one additional identical installation element.
Such installation elements are known from, inter alia, DE 197 33 480 C2, and, in the state in which they are connected to additional identical installation elements, act as what is known as an installed packing that is situated for example in a wet cooling tower in order on the one hand to cause warm water that is to be cooled to flow from above to below through the installed packing, and on the other hand to conduct cooling air through the installed packing in a cross-current and/or counter-current. Here, each installation element is made up of a plate-shaped body that can have a corrugated surface structure in order to enlarge the contact surface between the gas and the liquid. In order to connect a plurality of installation elements to each other, here it is proposed that each of these elements be provided with corresponding pegs and recesses in order to enable adjacent installation elements to be locked to one another. A concrete embodiment of the recesses and pegs is disclosed in FIG. 7, in which mushroom-head-shaped pegs are shown.
In addition, from DE 42 41 859 A1 a plate element for a heat exchanger is known that can be assembled to additional identical plate elements via a locking connection to form a packing element. According to FIG. 3, the pegs are fashioned in the shape of mushroom heads, and according to patent claim 4 the plate element is elastically flexible at least in the area corresponding to the pegs. In this way, the peg can be pushed more easily into the hole and locked there due to the elasticity of the plate element material. This elasticity is always ensured given the preferred thicknesses named in the document of the film material of the plate element, which are only 0.2 mm or 0.4 mm. If, however, a thicker material is selected for the plate element, such an elasticity surrounding a hole can practically no longer be realized.